Every day as Ilan walks in the door, we sing to him "hail the conquering hero" from Disney's Aladdin and the Lamp - it brings a big smile to his face.
At physical therapy sessions Ilan pleasantly astonishes his teachers with the advances that he is making. When he is sat next to a parallel bars, he pulls himself up to the standing position all by himself. While standing in between the parallel bars, with the slightest of help, he is able to walk along the parallel bars supporting himself using the bars with his hands.
His right hand and leg are making good progress albeit they have not yet matched the prowess of his left side. But knowing Ilan it won't be long before that happens.
Lately Ilan is contorting and moving his body every which way; as he explains to us, he is only trying to stretch so he will feel better.
We play Wii with him sometimes and he gets a little frustrated at not being able to work the system by himself - but it does not stop him from continuing to try.
Last week Jarone and Dad put him in the crouch position and rocked him back and forth. We soon found that Ilan was rocking himself! Also thruout this exercise, being horizontal, he held his head erect by himself and also turned his head to the side to be able to smile at his cousin who was on skype talking to Ilan.
This week Ilan began "wheelwalking his chair" - he used his legs to move himself (on the chair) both back and forth.
Ilan is heartily eating lots more yogurt and trying other mini foods. He has started speech therapy in earnest which should help him vocalize very soon.
Finally, Ilan's brothers will be home again next week for the summer so we look forward to seeing further major improvements due to their help/input and Ilan's competitive responsiveness to their challenges.
